Sublime

So at the beginning is eclecticism, at the end is universality, and in the middle is the lineage.

the probability of easily finding a root guru among the scholars, rinpoches, tulkus, and three-year retreatants is at least greater than finding one at the grocery store.

Atmananda, an Austrian woman who spent several years with Anandamayi, and whose account of her spiritual discipleship was published posthumously as the book Death Must Die, recounts horrendous caste-based discrimination she faced as a Western woman in what was for all purposes a strict Hindu ashram.

It is vital to study the teachings extensively in order to be prepared to take on a teacher.

On more than one occasion he indicated that giving darshan was, so to speak, his task in life and that he must be accessible to all who came.

associated with a specific religious tradition, the religion of Śiva-Śakti, also known as Shaivism, the dominant religion of India throughout the medieval period.

guru is not a person but the eternal reality that always exists and shines in our heart as our own being, ‘I am’.

we must beware, because an excellent, profound, living tradition of yoga can still be worn by an idiot as a decoration for his or her ego, while a sincere, open-minded, inquisitive student of a fractured lineage can breathe new life and insight into that tradition for everyone’s benefit.